When comparing Sublime Text vs IntelliJ IDEA, the Slant community recommends Sublime Text for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?”Sublime Text is ranked 10th while IntelliJ IDEA is ranked 42nd. The most important reason people chose Sublime Text is:

Sublime Text has a minimap on the side that provides a top-down view of the file and keyboard shortcuts for most actions. It also supports a large number of languages and general text editing features out of the box.

Specs

Auto CompleteYes

Bracket MatchingYes

Code TemplatesYes

Cross PlatformYes

Integrated DebuggerNo

Multi Language SupportYes

PlatformsWindows; macOS; Linux

Source Control IntegrationVia plugins

BidiNo

Collaborative editingNo

Column selectionYes

Error MarkupNo

Extension languagePython

Go To DefinitionYes

Interactive ConsoleNo

LicenseProprietary

PluginYes

Plugin ManagerYes (3rd party)

RTLNo

Supported keybinding stylesOSX; Vi; Emacs

Supported remote file editing protocolsFTP (plug-in); SSH (plug-in)

Unit TestingNo

Auto CompleteYes

Bracket MatchingYes

Code TemplatesYes

Cross PlatformYes

Integrated DebuggerYes

Multi Language SupportYes

PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux

Source Control IntegrationYes

Very intuitive shortcuts and shortcut managementContains new ideas for boosting productivity

Pros

Pro

Comfortable to work with

Sublime Text has a minimap on the side that provides a top-down view of the file and keyboard shortcuts for most actions. It also supports a large number of languages and general text editing features out of the box.

Pro

Functionality can be easily extended

Sublime Text uses TextMate's syntax declaration files to support new languages, it has all its menus and keybindings generated from JSON files, and it can be scripted to add new features using Python.If Sublime Text doesn't support a desired language or feature, it's usually not long before someone implements it themselves - examples include the plugin package manager and the 'open in browser' command.

Pro

Lightweight

Sublime Text is very lightweight by default. Customization occurs on the fly thanks to Package Control.

Pro

Multi-line select and editing

Multiple cursors and column selection allows for versatile ways of editing.ctrl + d will select the current word and each time the command is repeated, it adds the next occurrence of the word to the selection.ctrl + click or middle-mouse click will place another cursor in the place that's clicked. Cursors can then be controlled together. This also permits selecting vertically.ctrl + shift + l will place a cursor on every highlighted line.

Pro

Beginner-friendly

When you start using Sublime Text, it doesn't drown you in keyboard shortcuts or non-intuitive use-concepts. However, high-level functionality can still be easily accessed when the need for it arises.

Pro

Consistent cross-platform

Sublime Text looks consistently the same across Windows, OS X, and Linux.

Pro

Offers Command Palette

Pro

Fully customizable

Sublime Text allows for all sorts of customization to help users change almost everything in the editor: Key Bindings, Menus, Snippets, Macros, Completions, and many more. Essentially, just about everything in Sublime Text is customizable with simple JSON files. This system gives the user flexibility as settings can be specified on a per-file type and per-project basis.

Pro

Regex commands

Regex commands help describe a certain amount of text.

Pro

Permits instant file switching

Open Goto Anything by pressing Ctrl or Command + P and by using fuzzy search you can look for a file in your project. The file will load even without pressing enter, so you can make sure you've found the correct file without committing.

Pro

IDE features without the cruft

Sublime Text, while being lighter-weight than an IDE, still supports many IDE features.

Pro

Very fast

Sublime is quick to start and never slows down. The UI is always responsive and you know what is happening in the background.

Pro

Installable package manager

The package manager is a plugin and can be swapped with something else custom.

Pro

Portable settings

Settings are modular and can be shared.

Pro

Customizable keymapping

From menus to commands, assign key maps to almost anything.

Pro

Highly Theme-able

Create your own theme with online editor.

Pro

Dynamic Build System

Choose from many build systems or craft your own.

Pro

Haxe and OpenFL integration via plugin

Both of these programming interfaces are cross-platform, open source, and easy to use.

Pro

Freemium

A Sublime license can be bought but it can still be used for free. However, a pop-up appears when you save multiple times.

Pro

Multiple languages are supported

Pro

Direct server upload

Provides command line shortcut for server upload.

Pro

Functionalities

With lot of functionalities, where other editor even not think to provide.

Pro

Smart refactorings

IDEA places an emphasis in safe refactoring, offering a variety of features to make this possible for a variety of languages.These features include safe delete, type migration and replacing method code duplicates.

Con

Somewhat expensive

Con

Bugs are not solved as often as they should

They are more interested in adding new features or issuing new versions than solving bugs.

Con

Built with closed source components

The version with full features is not opensource. Parts of the code are under apache licence though.

Con

Slow startup

Startup can be slow deepending on system configuration

Con

Cannot open multiple projects in the same window

Con

Uses too much RAM

Con

Lack of plugins

IntelliJ supports a very small amount of plugins. Althrough thesse are 'quality approved', many features are missing and can't be implemented because of that.

Con

Standard hotkeys behave differently

Seems like hotkeys assignment in Idea has no logical consistency.

Like «F3» is usually next match, «Ctrl+W» - close tab, etc — they map to some different action by default.There is a good effort in making the IDE friendly for immigrants from other products: there are options to use hotkeys from Eclipse, and even emacs. But these mappings are very incomplete. And help pages do not take this remapping into account, rather mentioning the standard hotkeys.

So, people coming from other IDEs/editors are doomed to using mouse and context menus (which are rather big and complex).